Is NEEShub a Cyberinfrastructure?

NEEShub, a sophisticated platform for Earthquake Engineering research, collaboration, and education supported by the NEEScomm IT team, is most definitely a cyberinfrastructure. Here’s how NEEShub meets (and sometimes exceeds) the features mentioned above:

Data – Two main areas of NEEShub store publicly available Earthquake Engineering data: the Project Warehouse, containing traditional NEES experimental research data/results and Databases, instances of concise, highly searchable repositories of earthquake engineering research data, vetted by professional communities and connected to original sources.

Information resources – NEEShub contains a wealth of dynamic Learning and Outreach information specifically oriented to Students, Teacher, Practitioners, and the Public

Digitally enabled sensors and Instruments – Research, the primary purpose of the NEES network, is conducted year round at the 14 NEES earthquake equipment sites. Research data at the sites is collected through the use of a wide variety of sensors and instruments.

Virtual organizations – Because research teams are often geographically distributed, NEEShub provides a number of features specifically intended to support virtual organizations. Some of these features include Groups, WebEx, and SynchroNEES

Interoperable suite of software services and tools – interoperability and especially tools are the sweet spot for NEEShub. NEEShub provides a unique and efficient environment for executing software tools because users are not required to download, install, or configure most software tools. The NEEScomm IT team works with tool developers to install and configure tools within a secure, centrally located environment so that NEEShub users can easily focus on using the software tools within a web browser. This environment also supports centralized, secure web-based storage of tool-generated data files. Thus, tools and associated data can be accessed from web browsers regardless of the user’s physical location.

In summary, the NEES Cyberinfrastructure, with the NEEShub as its center piece, is a shared research and education environment that leverages and synthesizes distributed earthquake engineering facilities, earthquake engineering professionals, and powerful computing tools to enable an integrated discovery and education community for the mitigation of losses from earthquake.

The NEEScomm IT Team – here to help

The NEEScomm IT team is a dedicated group of seasoned yet innovative IT professionals. The team has a wealth of industry expertise in IT development and operations; the team diligently follows best practices in these and other related areas. The NEEScomm IT team regularly monitors system performance, Support tickets, Questions and Answers, and Wishes to ensure a positive experience for each NEEShub user.

The mission of the NEEScomm IT team is to enable NEEShub to seamlessly couple data-handling capabilities, computer tools and platforms, simulation, and experimental and communication facilities to multiply the strengths and capabilities of each into an entity far greater than the sum of its parts.

Behind the Scenes

NEEShub is powered by the HUBzero software developed at Purdue University. HUBzero was specifically designed to help scientific communities share resources and work together with one another. Users can upload their own resources such as tools, publications, webinars, and courses with the intent of sharing with rest of the community.